


Come Back

by creepytrashcan



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Friendship, I'm a sucker for pain, M/M, One Shot, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-25 12:21:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18261188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creepytrashcan/pseuds/creepytrashcan
Summary: Bertolt wishes Reiner would finally come back to him.





	Come Back

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first English story. I apologize for my bad writing and any spelling or grammar mistakes since German is my native language. I hope you’ll have fun reading this story though! :)

 

 

> ❝ _Did you change?_  
>  _Or did I change?_  
>  _I hate even this moment that is passing  
>  I guess we changed_  
>  _I guess that’s how everything is_ ❞ —  ** _Spring Day_** , BTS

Ever since Bertolt could remember, it had always been Reiner and him. They were rarely seen apart, never leaving the other one’s side. The two of them went through thick and thin together. No matter whether they had to face tough times, as long as both of them could rely on each other, everything was going to be fine. There was no Reiner without Bertolt and no Bertolt without Reiner.

Bertolt himself was, as opposed to his best friend, neither outgoing nor talkative. He was insecure and got shy easily, being too afraid to talk to people he wasn’t familiar with. That and the fact that the tall, lanky brunette sweated a lot when he was nervous (and he was nervous most of the time) made him an easy target to pick on.

But Reiner would always come to the rescue. He stood up for Bertolt whenever the other kids teased him, he calmed Bertolt down whenever his father was throwing a tantrum again, and he never failed to cheer up Bertolt whenever he was upset.

Reiner had always been by his side.

... However, that changed dramatically when the blond started to hang out with Eren Jaeger and his friends.

Bertolt barely saw Reiner anymore as the latter was always busy (“Do you want to come over and play video games? We haven’t done this in a while and I thought we could—” “Sorry, I’m meeting up with Eren later.”), their movie nights which they’d never cancelled once since it was their thing as _best friends_ stopped, and at school Reiner preferred to spend his break with his new friends instead of with Bertolt. 

They were slowly but surely drifting apart, and there was nothing Bertolt could do about.

Break had just started, and as usual Bertolt was sitting with Annie, Krista, and Ymir—some of his few friends he made thanks to Reiner (though he had known Annie since they were little; but the petite blonde liked to pretend that she didn’t know Bertolt because apparently, she “didn’t need any friends”).

As always, one of the seats remained vacant.

Bertolt’s green eyes wandered around the cafeteria and eventually landed on Reiner who was sitting across the room, laughing as Connie said something funny. As if Reiner sensed that someone was staring at him, he turned in his seat. Their glances met for a split second and Reiner gave Bertolt a warm smile that made the younger’s heart flutter. Bertolt returned a smile before the amber eyes left his. 

Facing Reiner’s back, Bertolt could feel his heart aching. 

_Don’t leave me._

“Honestly, I’m really disappointed in him,” Ymir suddenly scoffed, making everyone turn their attention to her. She angrily stuffed a spoon full of what was supposed to be mashed potatoes in her mouth and mumbled, “He can’t abandon us like this just because he wants to hang out with popular Eren Jaeger.”

“Yes, he can. As you can see,” Annie responded nonchalantly, peering at Reiner. “If Reiner doesn’t want to be seen with us because we aren’t cool enough, let him be. He isn’t wrong after all. We are what people consider as boring misfits. No wonder Reiner doesn’t want to have anything to do with _us_. I mean, since he started hanging out with and Eren and his friends his popularity boosted.”

Hearing those harsh words, Bertolt whimpered quietly and sighed, his head hung low. He was very aware that all of his friends knew it all along—They knew the real reason why Reiner had chosen to abandon them. But nobody dared to say it out loud until now.

Annie was just being her usual cold, blunt self and she surely didn’t intend to hurt him in any way. But Bertolt felt a cold shiver running down his spine, his heart racing at a rate which wasn’t healthy anymore and his forehead was breaking out in a cold sweat. The mere sight of his tray full of food made Bertolt want to throw up although his stomach was still empty. 

“Don’t be sad.”

Bertolt abruptly looked up from his tray, staring into Krista’s sympathetic eyes.

“I’m sure everything will go back to normal soon.” She smiled brightly at him, her big blue eyes sparkling in optimism. 

 _How can you be so sure of this?_ Bertolt scoffed internally, but (aside from the fact that he found it unfair to snap at Krista who just wanted to comfort him) he didn’t have the guts to open his damn mouth and speak his mind. It was always so.

“For real, what is Reiner thinking?” Ymir muttered grumpily. “You’ve been his best friend for ages! How can he do this to you? Best friends are supposed to be there for each other.”

_Best friends..._

Bertolt couldn’t take it any longer.

He excused himself, murmuring something about needing to go to the toilet and left the cafeteria as fast as he could. On his way out Bertolt took one last look of Reiner who paid no heed to him. 

His heart only ached even more. 

He needed to get out of here, he needed to escape from all those hurtful words he didn’t want to hear, and most importantly, he needed to get Reiner out of his sight.

“Bert—!” Krista called out, ready to go after him but Annie stopped her by gripping her arm.

She shook her head and merely said, “He needs some time to himself.”

Krista closed her mouth again and nodded slightly, but the worried expression she had didn’t leave her face.

Nearly running, Bertolt made his way to the boys’ bathrooms and locked himself up in one of the stalls. He sat down on the toilet seat and pulled his knees up to his chin, wrapping his arms tightly around his long legs. Bertolt’s whole body was trembling, his breath was shaky, and salty tears stung in his eyes.

Though Bertolt refused to acknowledge it, Reiner indeed had changed.

If someone had told Bertolt that his best friend would leave him behind one day, he would’ve just laughed at them and denied it. But his silly thoughts became cruel reality, and now Bertolt didn’t know how to handle it.

Every time Reiner told him how much fun he had whilst hanging out with Eren, Bertolt could feel some sort of disappointment growing in the pit of his stomach. But being the coward he was, Bertolt never complained; he remained silent. Reiner looked so happy when he talked about his new friends, how could Bertolt possibly say anything? However, if he had, would it have been different?

Nonetheless, Bertolt wasn’t in the position to feel regret towards his decisions. He couldn’t forbid Reiner to spend time with Eren, he wasn’t his mother after all. But Bertolt would have never, not even in a million years, thought that Reiner would ever choose someone over him; Bertolt, his best friend.

Perhaps, it was foolish and ridiculous of him to believe that it was just a phase or that their friendship would last forever.

Still, Bertolt didn’t blame him—he simply couldn’t. It wasn’t Reiner’s fault that Bertolt was such a pathetic loser that nobody liked. If he was as popular as Eren or Reiner, he probably wouldn’t even want to hang out with himself either. 

Bertolt winced as the door was being pushed open. There were a few footsteps which eventually stopped when he heard pants getting unzipped, followed by dabbling. He fought the urge to cringe at that gross sound. 

“Marco’s parents aren’t home for the weekend so he has the place all to himself. You know what that means?”

An annoyed groan almost left Bertolt’s lips as he realized whose voice it was: It was no less a figure than Jean Kirschstein a.k.a. the school’s biggest jerk. Bertolt tried really hard to be nice to him, yet Jean always found a reason to tease him.

“Of course.”

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Bertolt’s eyes went wide as he recognized the the second voice’s owner. He blinked a few times but there was doubt about it. Bertolt would recognize this voice _an_ _ywhere_.

“It’s gonna be lit!” Jean laughed, zipping up his pants. “I heard Sasha’s parents have just come back from their holiday trip and brought some of that rad German booze. Oh man, I’m gonna be fucking wasted on Saturday.”

“Fine but don’t throw up on my sweater again,” Reiner mocked. Although Bertolt couldn’t see him, he knew exactly what Reiner’s smirk must’ve looked like right now.

“Hey, that happened only once!” the younger whined, turning on the faucet. “Hey, Braun... You’re not bringing your friend, are you? I mean that tall weirdo. What was his name again? Fubar?”

Bertolt’s breath quickened upon hearing his own name. Jean Kirschstein was... talking about _him_?

“Hoover. You mean Hoover, his first name’s Bertolt,” Reiner corrected him. “No. Why are you asking?”

“Because he’s a square.”

Bertolt could feel his heart drop.

The older let out a small laugh. “Well, you ain’t wrong. I don’t want him to be there either. Hell, I wouldn’t even ask him whether he wants to join us! I mean, he's a nice guy but... Bertolt simply doesn’t belong to us. He’s a buzzkill anyway.”

Reiner and Jean both started to chuckle.

“We should get going. Classes are about to start.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

As soon as they left the boys’ bathroom, the tears that burnt in Bertolt eyes immediately ran down his flushed cheeks. Biting his lower lip, he tried to suffocate his desperate sobs but they got only louder and louder. His shoulder shook uncontrollably as Bertolt buried his tear-stained face in his knees, praying that the endless pain in his chest would finally go away.

_Bertolt simply doesn’t belong to us._

_Bertolt simply doesn’t belong to **me**._

Maybe Bertolt just had to accept the fact... that Reiner wouldn’t come back to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah... I felt like Ymir was a bit out of character. Sorry. I hope you liked this one-shot though (even if it ended up being shorter than I expected it to be...)! ^^ I’d be very glad if you leave a comment down below and tell me what you think of this story! :) Thank you!!


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